My Top 20 Films Of 2012

I love these types of lists, so here you go. Last year I made a top 15 and the last five were maybes. This year I intend on revisiting all 20 of these films plenty!

20. The Grey – Joe Carnahan

Liam Neeson breaks your heart as he rages against the dying of the light. This film is nearly flawless, and the only reason in ranks so low for me is that viewing it is so draining I can’t really do it that often. That being said, Neeson and Carnahan team up for the best movie ever based on a tale Jack London never wrote.

19. Frankenweenie – Tim Burton

Tim Burton makes his best and funniest film since Mars Attacks! I never would have thought that this would be the film to end is streak of bland but it rules in ways only a film made by Tim Burton can.

18. The Dark Knight Rises – Christopher Nolan

A subversive pop-fantasy and an essay on class warfare, TDKR is a brilliant thought bomb exploded into the mass consciousness. While it never reaches the manic highs of The Dark Knight, Nolan effortlessly, (mostly), ties off his trilogy with grace and style.

17.Skyfall – Sam Mendes

The most beautiful film of the year is also a riveting spy thriller loaded with amorality and intrigue. It’s just hard boiled enough to be Frank Miller’s 007 Returns.

16. Combat Girls – David Wnendt

Combat Girls is a fierce drama about rich characters. Alina Levshin is a marvel.

15. Chronicle – Josh Trank

Dane Dehaan is unchained. This film is fucking awesome.

14. Here Comes The Devil – Adrian Garcia Bogliano

Second only to The Cabin in The Woods, Here comes the Devil is nearly the best horror film of the year. The plot kept me guessing till the end, and indulged many of the sicker corners of my mind while performing a high-wire act concerning the morality of the players. A classic.

13. Argo – Ben Affleck

Cool and confident, Argo twists the plot until your wits are what Affleck wrings out. Thrilling.

12. The Raid – Gareth Evans

One of the best action films ever made. The audible moans and cheers heard during screenings of this film made it a true audience experience, an adrenaline rush that pushes you for the entire runtime.

11. Life Of Pi – Ang Lee

Ang Lee’s film is a surreal tone poem that makes bar raising use of the language of 3D cinema.

10. Antiviral – Brandon Cronenberg

Bold, uncompromising and twisted, Antiviral is that type of cutting edge science fiction that sends you out of the theater afraid of the world as it mutates before you. Antiviral is a chilling debut from a stellar talent.

9. Cloud Atlas – Andy and Lana Wachoski and Tom Tykwer

This is one of the most engaging films ever made. It’s a miracle it works, but if you let it, it does.

8. Killer Joe – William Friedkin

The master’s teeth are sharp as ever. Friedkin delivers a sick knife to the gut that goes in so nice.

7. The Avengers – Joss Whedon

I wanted to see this film since I was about four years old and watching it made me feel as though I was getting to see it as four year old, and that’s some kind of magic.

6. The Cabin In The Woods – Drew Goddard

The common thread among horror films is now The Cabin In The Woods. In the pantheon of greatest horror comedies of all time, there are only three films: Ghostbusters, Sean Of The Dead, and now The Cabin In The Woods.

5. Moonrise Kingdom

Avengers made me feel like a kid, Moonrise Kingdom made me angry I’d ever grown up. I bawled like child through the most romantic film of the year.

4. Cosmopolis – David Cronenberg

Not subtle but prodding, Cronenberg preaches his weird message to whoever wants to listen. Too often it tends to be risk-taking cineastes, but if casting Robert Pattinson only got a few regular folks into his weird ass movie, it was worth it.

3. John Dies At The End – Don Coscarelli

They Live for the new age. See it and hope they have the balls to make a sequel.

2. Django Unchained

While Cronenberg preaches to the choir, Tarantino is out, front and center, crafting subversive blockbusters for the world to feast upon. Django Unchained is crafted on a level of such supreme sophistication, that film scholars will puzzle over it’s juxtaposition of American white cowboy myth and blaxploitation replacement symbols. DU not only changes the way we view slavery but the way we view the way slavery has thus far been depicted in film.

1. Holy Motors – Leos Carax

Expect the unexpected from this surreal masterpiece. Carax crafts what could end up the best film of the decade, possibly one of the best films of all time? A slippery creature Holy Motors is, never revealing itself completely, it swims in and out of your mind, meaning everything at once.